Benchmark took “almost all equity” with FriendFeed sale to Facebook

Benchmark Capital, FriendFeed’s sole venture capital backer, took “almost all equity” in proceeds from the startup’s sale to Facebook on Monday, according to the firm’s lead partner on the deal.

Facebook bought social sharing startup FriendFeed on Monday for $47.5 million, with $15 million in cash and $32.5 million in stock, according to The Wall Street Journal. That means FriendFeed’s two other primary investors, co-founders Paul Buchheit and Sanjeev Singh, along with their employees probably received the bulk of the cash in Monday’s sale while Benchmark scored a small equity stake in Facebook at the company’s $6.5 billion valuation. Peter Fenton, a partner at Benchmark, said the firm didn’t actively negotiate on the company’s behalf. He did not confirm the acquisition price.

“Imagine FriendFeed’s ecosystem of potential acquirers,” said Fenton, who is also a member of Twitter’s board of directors. “We were providing the company counsel, and our primary feedback was to help them think through where they were going to be most effective after the transaction and where they were going to flourish.”

Fenton nailed a rare two exits in a single day with the FriendFeed acquisition and SpringSource’s $420 million sale to VMWare.

“SpringSource was a much bigger transaction. It was not so much about buying a small elite team like at FriendFeed,” Fenton said. “It was much more about buying a vision.”